Mauerbauertraurigkeit
by Jedi Jelsa777
Summary: The Sequel to Cousins Adrift, what new adventures await the cousins and the turtles? And will they survive them?
1. Chapter 1

**According to something I read, Mauerbauertraurigkeit is the inexplicable urge to push people away, even close friends who you really like. You shall see why I have chosen to name my story this as it progresses. I'm writing this to hopefully clear up my writers block I feel when I stare at Something Big and After the War is Won. I know where I want to go with them, but at the same time I can't decide how to get there, so this is written more for me then for you, sorry :P**

 **Also, this is vital to my story so please I need some input. If someone were to be mutated, would you want it to be the girls or the turtles + Sensei? I wont say what they will be mutated into, that I already have planned, but I just can't figure out who to go with, lol.**

Lianna looked over at her cousin Mattie, who was beaming up at her boyfriend, Raph. It was hard to believe that it was just over a year ago that they came to know the turtles. Casey had moved away to be with the girl he fell in love with and now Donnie and April were dating as well. Both the cousins and Lianna's parents spent as most of their free times down in the sewers with the turtles and their Sensei, although her parents also visited with April's dad Kirby O'Neil. But other than that and the fact that both girls were now free from school, not much had changed.

In fact most nights they still stayed in their room in the turtles' home, either because they were tired from training or because they had spent most of it already patrolling the streets with the boys and April. Casey was missed a lot, his wit and wise cracks having been a big part of the patrols. Lately though, the boys had felt there wasn't much of a reason to go on doing so. The Kraang hadn't shown their faces in months and with Shredder and his now humanized minions now in jail, the nights always passed peacefully.

But, as Sensei liked to say, when one evil falls or slumbers, another rises to take its place. So they continued their routines, ever alert to the idea of new foes around every corner. Her parents, Matt and Skye, became quite close to Splinter and were fascinated by his story of how he came to be the mutant that now stood before them. Another change was that Sensei had April, the cousins and even Matt, Skye and Kirby teaching the turtles basic school things, though Donnie helped out a lot with Science and Mathematics. Via the internet, Lianna had even managed to get the GEDs, for they gave them test and everything. Of course they had no trouble getting their PE times in, always listed under martial arts.

The girls had both taken part time jobs at the boys favorite pizza shop, that way they could bring them after each day that they worked, Mikey being the most excited about this development. Lianna pulled out the scrapbook Mikey had given her, adding her latest batches of photos, anything to distract her from the two happy couples in the room. Karai and Leo were still trying to figure out if they should date, they were attracted to each other, but the fact that Splinter was both of their fathers, even though one wasn't quite a blood child, made it a bit awkward for them, especially since they both now lived in the same house. Lianna sighed, they were so cute together she just wished that they would get it through their heads that even with the unusualness of their situation, they were made for each other.

Suddenly Mikey flopped next to her on the couch and said, "What a do girl?" She chuckled softly and said "Hey Mikey, how is it you always seem to know when I have finished putting in new pictures in the album?" "I am physic yo!" he said, doing the give me hands at the same time, causing Lianna to laugh again as she handed it over to the young turtle. He flipped through the old ones first, pausing to laugh or say "Ohh remember this!?" every so often. Once he reached the new ones, he took his time, pouring over the inscription below each one and carefully studying each one.

As he did so, Lianna looked around the room at her family, all that was missing was Casey, but they hadn't heard from him in months. Not even April could raise him on his cellphone, and although they were a bit concerned, they also understood he had a new girlfriend and life. Maybe he was purposely cutting them off, but knowing Casey it was more likely that he had just lost track of time, maybe even meant to call back and got distracted by one thing or another.

Suddenly Mikey pulled her from her musings as he said, "So do you have to work today? Cause if you do, I want anchovies on my pizza this time!" Lianna laughed and said, "Yes Mikey I am and I will be sure to get that for you. In fact… Mattie…. Mattie… it's time to get ready for work." Her cousin stuck her tongue at her and said "Can't I call in sick?" "I mean you could, but I don't think Raph will forgive you for not bringing him his pizza again, besides you have called in sick a lot recently and the boss is starting to ask me questions about where you are at, etc."

Her cousin sighed and said, "Fine, I'll go get ready." Lianna chuckled to herself, before turning to a sad looking Mikey, who said "Aww I also wanted to play video games with you." Lianna gave him a friendly kiss on the top of the head as she walked past him, heading to the room her cousin and her shared, and said "I wish I could stay and play too Mikey, but remember, I am bringing pizza back." Mikey perked up and said "True. Hurry along oh great pizza bearer!" Lianna laughed and playfully rolled her eyes at him as she hurried to get ready for work.


	2. Chapter 2

**Please forgive me for taking forever to update this. I couldn't make up my mind which way to go with this, as I have great ideas for both, so I ended up having a form of writers block for the longest time. Finally I just made myself sit down and write this, lol. It is a bit short, but I wanted to end this chapter where I did, so yeah. Hope you enjoy :D**

As the girls were walking back to the sewers later with the pizza, they both suddenly had the feeling of eyes on them. They stopped and looked around swiftly, but saw no one in any direction. They kept walking, but slightly changed their direction so that they were headed home. Once they safely arrived home, they went through a secret entrance that led from it to the sewers, something Donnie had installed after Lianna's parents safe return. It took a little longer that way, but at least it lost whoever was following, if there was even anyone following them to begin with.

They waited until the boys had finished eating before telling them about the feeling. "I'm sure it was nothing, but be extra cautious on patrol tonight." Mattie said, giving Raph a look. "Since when are we not cautious?" asked Raph, feigning innocence. "Like ninety percent of the time." Lianna responded as she headed back towards the sewer entrance, "Wish we could stay but we promised my mom that we would be home for supper, we have some guest coming." Mattie groaned and said "Can't we say we're sick? I would much rather be patrolling with the guys then visiting with some boring old guest!" "Mattie." Lianna said while rolling her eyes. "Fine." Mattie said, returning the eye roll of her cousin with one of her own, "See you guys tomorrow, we'll probably end up staying there tonight."

"Okay, goodnight Lianna, Mattie." Leonardo responded. Once the girls had left, the boys got ready to head out on patrol. "Man, I wish we could just stay in and play some video games." Mikey said to no one in particular. "The activity will be good for you, my son. We must stay in shape, you never know when a new villain will rise to fill Shredder's place." Splinter said, knocking his walking stick gently against his son's arm. "Yes Sensei." Mikey replied, rubbing the spot even though it didn't hurt. The four brothers soon left the sewers, though if Splinter was honest with himself something didn't feel right. Perhaps he was just too worried about the feeling the girls had told them about.

XXX

Hours later, the boys were getting ready to return to the sewers, having seen nothing all night when suddenly Raph exclaimed "Ouch! Who poked me?" "Wasn't meeeeeee, yeow!" Donatello replied. Both Mikey and Leo also let out a sound, as something sharp poked into the skin near their necks. Donnie pulled out a dart and was about to make a comment about it, when his eyes suddenly felt heavy and it felt like he couldn't support his own weight. Almost as one, the four brothers collapsed unconscious to their sides, as the area near the entry point gave off a faint, strange glow.

XXX

Hours later, Leo groaned as he sat up, rubbing his eyes to remove the grainy feeling from them. Hearing an answering groan, he looked towards the sound. Suddenly he was wide awake and on his feet as he saw that it was human. But he felt strangely light and fell over backwards, hitting the roof. "That hurt more than it should have." He thought, "Oh no, maybe I cracked my shell when I passed out!" As he started to reach over his back, he stopped and stared at his arm. Something wasn't right here… Suddenly, he heard Donnie's voice shout "We're human?!


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the long wait in between chapters and the shortness of this one, I had a cold claim me early last week that was the kind that made your head feel like a balloon and I am still trying to shake it this week (though thankfully the balloon feeling is gone). But I wanted to work on this story/get a chapter out for you, so here you go :D**

The four brothers stared at each other in shock. They all held a family resemblance, though each had something that set them apart. Raph was buff, while Mikey was scrawny (though still muscular), Donnie was tall and lean, while Leo was fit looking, though not quite as buff as Raph. They all looked Asian, like Karai ("probably because of Splinter's human DNA", Donnie thought), but each had a shock of hair that was the color of their masks. Speaking of their masks, those had disappeared along with their shells (obviously), but thankfully human clothes had taken the place of them.

"What happened?" Mikey asked, as he stared in awe at his five fingers. "Whatever was in those darts must have reversed the Mutagen's effect, much like my serum did, but somehow our human side won out over our turtle, something I had been working on myself but hadn't perfected." Donnie replied. Raph stood and managed to keep his footing barely as he said "This is going to take some getting used to." "Let's head to Lianna and Mattie's place, its just past the next alley." Leo said, already cautiously heading to the side of the building.

Once they reached the edge, they looked down and Mikey gulped. "Maybe we should go down and then over, I mean we aren't even stable enough to walk, let alone jump." Donnie nodded and said "I am with Mikey on this one." The other two turtles… ummm… brothers agreed and so they made their way down the nearest fire escape and headed carefully down. Upon reaching the bottom, they headed over to the girls' residence and knocked. Lianna answered with a smile and said "Can I help you?"

"Lianna, it's us." Mikey stage whispered. Her eyes widened as she exclaimed, "Mikey?!" The boys nodded and Lianna ushered them inside. Her parents were at their new jobs, but she went and fetched Mattie and had Raph tell her who he was. Just like her cousin, her eyes grew wide and Mattie asked what both girls were thinking, "What happened to you guys?" Donnie explained about the dart that hit them the night before, along with his theories. The girls listened in stunned silence, before saying "Come on, we have to get you to Master Splinter."

Everyone headed down the secret entrance to the sewers and the girls helped the turtles to their lair. Splinter was training Karai and April at the moment, so the boys flopped on the couch, exhausted from walking around with the gait and compensating for different things. The cousins, however, headed into the dojo section of the underground home of them all and interrupted the lesson with cryptic "You have to see what has happened!" Splinter, April and Karai all shared a puzzled glance before following the cousins out into the main section and gasped at the sight of four human boys lounging on the sofa. When Leo spotted his master and father he jumped and gave a clumsy bow as he said "Sensei." That's when the three recognized who these human were.

Much like the cousins, they demanded to know what had happened and once again Donnie filled them in. "Hmm this is disturbing, who would know to change you and how to do so?" Sensei said as he stroked his beard. After a moment of contemplative silence he smiled and said "But you should make the most of it. You have always wanted to see what the humans do without causing them fear, now is your chance." Lianna smiled at Mikey and said "Just think of all the things we can see and the photos we can take!" "Oh yeah!" Mikey jumped up excitedly, over compensated, and fell flat on his face. "Maybe we should get a little more used to moving around first." Raph said, crossing his arms.


	4. Chapter 4

A week passed and finally the brothers felt able to go up on the surface without making fools of themselves. The cousin, April and Karai had been giving them lessons on how to act and so they all felt prepared for what was coming their way. They were wrong. The first stop was a mall and immediately they all felt overwhelmed. Each brother paired off with one of the humans and each was taken to a store the girls felt they would appreciate. Mikey was thrilled to see all the games and comics in the two stores that Lianna had picked out for them to visit. They soon had some items picked out and after purchasing them, they hurried to meet up with the others.

Karai had taken Leo to a store that had many old weapons and he had found a couple of blades that he liked, Donnie and April had visited an electronics store and he had gotten a few things to improve several of his machines performances, and Raph and Mattie went to a place that sold exercise equipment and Raph had bought a new punching bag, which he was having delivered to the cousins' home first and then he would take it to the lair. "Well that was fun." Leo said as the girls brought pizza from one of the mall's eating establishments to the tables they had claimed. "Hope you enjoyed it, because that is the only free shopping spree you guys are getting." Karai said.

"What do you mean?" asked Donnie, to which April replied, "We are going to help you all get jobs." The boys shared a look before Leo asked "What if this stuff stops working in the middle of our work hours?" "You didn't seem too worried about that when you were spending our money." Mattie teased. "If it does, you'll probably feel it coming and you can make some sort of excuse to get out of there, but its been a week, have you ever thought that this change might be permanent?" Lianna questioned.

"I don't know if I would like it if it wasn't temporary, how are we supposed to protect this city if we are just humans?" Raph replied, earning him a round of heys from the girl, followed by Mattie saying "We're just humans, genius." Raph blushed before he mumbled "You know what I mean." "I get that just learning to walk without tripping over your own feet has been hard and that probably makes learning to fight again seem impossible, but people do it all the time. Look at Lianna, she had that injury that was causing her problems but she still fought." Karai replied, "You will get this figured out, I just know it." "But until then, you need to eat and we can't afford to feed you and ourselves." April added, and Lianna finished with "Besides, think of the things you can buy with your money."

XXX

A few days later, after Donnie had gotten them all social security cards and such, they all went out job searching. Leo went back to the store he had bought his blades at and, after showing off his knowledge, was immediately hired. Raph tried a couple of places before being hired at a health food store and Donnie got a part time job as a sales clerk at an electronics store while also taking a few classes at the local University, in case they were stuck as humans forever he wanted to be prepared. Mikey got hired at one store as a shelf stocker, but was almost immediately fired due to tripping and knocking over a glass display case.

Lianna found him hugging his knees and hiding his face in them when she got back from work. "What's wrong Mikey?" "Nothing…" he mumbled. "Come on Mikey, its me, you can tell me whatever it is, I wont laugh or anything." She gently said as she sat down beside him. He spilled the whole story about being fired and what happened and she gave him and hug before saying "Don't worry Mikey, anyone could have done that. Tomorrow is my day off, I'll help you look for something that sounds like fun where you wont have to worry about that again." Mikey smiled through the tears and said "Thanks Lianna!" before returning her hug. Lianna smiled, happy to see Mikey his normal, bouncy self. Grabbing the nearby game remotes, she handed him one and took the other for herself before they got lost in the game.

 **Thanks to J.J. Norris for making the suggestions that got my plot back on track after so many months, lol. You guys should really check out their TMNT stories Broken Memories and its sequel Eccedentesiast, A person who fakes a smile; they are fantastic!**

 **Also, I know this chapter and the last one were a bit short, but I am hoping the next one will be longer :D**


	5. Chapter 5

Weeks passed and while Leo, Donnie and Raph had all fallen into a routine and even made friends at work, Mikey had trouble holding down a job. Most lasted a day before he knocked something over or did some other goof up, though one had lasted just a day shy of a week before the owner had given up on him. After their first week as humans, Splinter had insisted they start training again. While they were still off balance, and not nearly as good as they used to be, they were making progress. All of them were laughing and hanging out down in the lair after work and practice, when a familiar voice said "I see how it is, I leave and you let anyone come down here." "Casey!" They all exclaimed, turning to see the grinning boy.

Mikey tackled him in a hug and said "Good to see you bro!" Casey's eyes widened as he said "Mikey?! Okay, someone needs to bring me up to speed obviously. So everyone told him what had happened, with Donnie finishing, "At this point, it appears to be permanent." "Woah. So have you caught the guy who did this?" Casey questioned, bringing everyone around to the fact that they had totally forgotten to even go looking for whoever did this. Obviously they had some sort of scheme up their sleeves, the question is… What?

XXX

Mikey had finally found a job that he could hold at place not to far from where the cousins were working, though he wasn't saving much money as he ended up eating a lot of it, he jokingly told Lianna. It had been two months since the turtles change and they were all starting to settle in nicely to their new lifestyle. Leo was thinking of joining Donnie at the University and Raph and Mattie had gone on quite a few dates, mainly her showing him all her favorite places, with a few of him taking her to places he had always seen at night and never in the day. Donnie loved going to the museums and observatories not just in New York, but in surrounding areas, when April was able to drive him there. Mikey was enjoying getting to see the celebrations as part of the crowd, not watching it from afar, though there had yet to be a real big holiday for him to witness the real crowds.

Lianna's photo album was quickly filling with photos of everyone's time, for they always made sure to give her at least one per an outing. And yet, Lianna couldn't help but feel that something was coming, something that wasn't good, that would spoil all of these fun and cherished moments together. She shook that thought off and brought herself into the present, closing the photo album after having placed the newest batch of photos to concentrate on the conversations flowing around her. Casey was telling Raph all about the girl he was in love with and Leo was talking softly to Karai, while the rest were talking about their jobs and friends they were making to each other. Well almost everyone was.

Lianna couldn't help but notice that Mikey, while laughing and joking around, wasn't saying anything about his work or the people he worked with. In fact, thinking back on it, she didn't remember him ever saying one name of anyone at his job. As she was about to say something, Mikey said "I'm going to go grab a snack, anyone want anything?" After a bunch of orders for food were shouted at him, Lianna chuckled and said "I'll help Mikey." Mikey flashed her a thankful grin, before leading the way into the kitchen.

Once they were inside of it, Lianna asked "How's work going Mikey?" "Oh same old same old, how about yours?" Mikey responded as he reached into the fridge to take out a couple of apples. "Going good thanks. My co-worker Paul didn't show up last week so I had to cover for him, but otherwise than that its all been routine. You make any friends where you are working yet?" "Oh sure, there's Dave and Fred, oh and Nancy, they're all cool." Mikey replied with his face now in the cupboard as he searched for some of the other items.

A few minutes passed before Lianna asked "How long have Dave, Paul and Nancy been working there?" "Oh longer than me." Mikey replied as he carefully stacked a bag of chips on top of the huge pile to carry out into the other room. Lianna held the door open for Mikey as she wondered if he was lying about having friends at work, or just didn't realize that she had swapped her co-worker's name with one of the ones he had given. Should she confront him about it? Before she could decide everyone had gathered around him to claim their snacks and the conversation was so light hearted that she didn't want to disturb it. So for now, she stayed quiet, but she was determined to talk to him soon.

 **Dang this felt so much longer while I was writing it, lol. Forgive me for its shortness, but its setting things up for the next couple of chapters. When those chapters will come out, I don't know, because I am really focusing on my current Star Wars story because it is so detailed etc, and I don't want to have this story suffer from it. That being said, I'm rather ashamed that its almost been a year since I put this up and I am only now posting chapter 5… that's almost an average of one chapter every three months and I am deeply sorry for that! Please forgive me.**


	6. Chapter 6

Lianna forgot to ask Mikey about his work and everything again, for once she put it off, it totally slipped her mind. Until one day when she came back and noticed Mikey was already back from work. As got closer she could tell he had been crying and she asked "Mikey, what's wrong?" "Nothing." He mumbled, as he wiped his tears away. "Come on Michelangelo, this is me you're talking to. Did something happen at work?" she asked gently, causing Mikey to glare at her and say "I said nothing is wrong, just leave me alone."

She was slightly taken back at his tone, but she still said "Mikey, you can trust me. What's the matter?" "What's the matter is you won't leave me alone!" Mikey exclaimed before standing up and rushing to his room where he slammed the door, leaving Lianna sitting on the couch in shock. She tried to follow him after a moment, but he had locked the door. "Please Mikey, let me in, don't shut me out." She begged him, but not a sound was heard from the other side of the door except for soft sobs.

Lianna paced in worry, and was still pacing when the other brothers got back home. Leo was the first to notice and asked her "What's the matter Lianna?" Lianna stopped and looked at him before saying "I wish I knew, Mikey won't talk to me about it." "Is that all? Mikey is Mikey, he'll be back to himself in no time, probably had a rough day at work." Raph said, trying to put her at ease, but it had the opposite effect. Lianna's eyes snapped with rage as she said in a soft, yet angry tone "Do not down play this Raphael. Something is wrong with Mikey and it isn't just going to magically disappear." Then she stomped to her room, though her door closing was much quieter than Mikey's had been.

The three boys shared a look before Donnie asked "Um what just happened?" "I don't know, but I bet Mattie would. Let's see if we can catch her on the way home." Raph said, not wanting Lianna to overhear them talking about her. They were in luck and caught Mattie just as she was exiting the pizza place where she and her cousin worked. "Hey guys, what's up? You know I can walk myself home." She teased, before she noticed their expressions and sighed "What is it this time?"

They told her about what Lianna had told them about Mikey, about Raph's comment and about Lianna's reaction. Mattie sighed and said "You guys all know Lianna, she is very sensitive to others and their emotions, etc. Before we moved here, Lianna had a good friend. She seemed to have it all and was the bubbliest person you could ever know. Lianna thought she had been acting strange and asked her how she was doing. The girl had said she was fine and talked about things that were coming up that she was looking forward to. The next week, Lianna came into school and heard that she had killed herself over the weekend."

The boys gasped and Donnie asked "Why?" "The girl's mom was really strict, always pushing her daughter to have all As, at school she was popular and was expected to act a certain way and date certain boys because of this. Her boyfriend was a jerk, but she knew if she broke up with him it wouldn't be good for her image and there were so many other things going on in her life. Yet she so perfectly put on the 'I'm happy' mask that nobody noticed her depression, until it was too late. Lianna has always thought that if only she had pressed further that she could have either helped her herself or gotten her help."

"And my idiot mouth had to say it was basically no big deal." Raph muttered. Mattie put a hand on his arm and said "It's not your fault Raph, it just probably brought up all that pain of her friend's death. Knowing Lianna, she'll probably apologize for her reaction to you by the time we get to the lair. She just really cares for Mikey." The four friends finished the walk back in silence, each lost in their own thought about Lianna and if she had due cause to worry about Mikey.

 **Wow this story is just a few days older than a year old… it doesn't feel like I have been dragging my feet on this one this long, but I have. My deepest apologies there. On the other hand, the title of the story is finally coming into play. I am still working on the Star Wars story I mentioned in my last chapter so I can't say when I will get another chapter to you, but I just had to let you guys know I am still going to finish this, it just might take a bit longer still.**


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